Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 09:11:08 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Stasz Subject: Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows 5/3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks! This morning I checked the small beach/dune area at the north end of North Beach, Calvert County and found 3 Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows and 3 Seaside Sparrows. According to my records, early May is a great time to look for Nelson's Sharp-tails. Along the Bay Saltmarsh Sharp-tails are also found at this season, slightly wayward birds from the Atlantic Coastal Marsh breeding area. Note that Nelson's will have a pale yellowish throat and Saltmarsh will have a white throat. You don't have to run down to North Beach. I would recommend Sandy Pt. SP [walk north from the beach and check the phragmites along the shore], Ft. Howard and Black Marsh area [once again along the shoreline vegetation], Waterfowl Trust [along the entrance road], and even along the Potomac and perhaps the Anacostia near the tidal areas. We know almost nothing about inland migration of Nelson's Sharp-tails. I suspect they will be found in knee deep grassy and brushy wet areas [the sort of place you might find a Marsh Wren or Sedge Wren and lots of Common Yellowthroats]. Also of note today in the North Beach Marsh [along Rt.261 at the far north end of North Beach]: Great Blue Heron 1 Green Heron 1 Tricolored Heron 1 Little Blue Heron 3 Snowy Egret 13 Lesser Yellowlegs 3 Spotted Sanpiper 3 Solitary Sandpiper 2 Least Sandpiper 16 Semipalmated Sandpiper 8 Northern Waterthrush 1 [the typical waterthrush in tidal areas] Good Birding! Jim Jim Stasz North Beach MD jlstasz@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================